Take A Third Option / Animated Films

• In the beginning of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Milo is enraged that his boss Mr. Harcourt (head of the Smithsonian board) rejected his proposal of funding an expedition to find the lost city of Atlantis, and confronted him for this by giving him two options; either Harcourt listens to Milo's proposal or he can accept Milo's resignation letter. However, Harcourt refuses to accept either choice and instead rebukes Milo not to waste away his potential on finding an ancient city that may or may not exist; even giving him a quarter out of pity before riding away, soaking Milo's resignation letter in the process.
• In the climax of Big Hero 6, Hiro must encourage four of his mates to do this by fleeing from attacking microbots, since their normal attacks don't seem to work. Wasabi gets pinned down by some between slabs of concrete on either side, but he cuts into the concrete in order to escape these microbots. Gogo gets encased in a microbot orb, but starts circling inside them to burn her way out. Although Honey Lemon gets trapped in her chemical dome while trying to protect herself when it is failing, she attaches her chemicals to the microbots instead to pull her out. Lastly, Fredzilla gets his suit's limbs seized and realizes that it's like his mascot's costume. However, he pulls his arms out to grab some debris in order to free himself with.
• In Pixar's Brave, Merida is faced with two choices. One is going through an arranged marriage when she doesn't want to be married at all, much less to some stranger (and later it's revealed that the prospect candidates are as reluctant as she is). Two is cancel the marriage and provoke war between the clans. So Merida, who is a pretty good archer on her own, decides to try some Loophole Abuse and win her own hand in the contest. Which turns out to insult the other clans just as much as a cancellation. Even worse, in a separate incident, she caused her mother to be turned into a bear too. Which makes things worse because her mother is the person who keeps the clans in order, and without her there they cannot be appeased.
• In Cars 3, Lightning McQueen winds up experiencing a crossroads in his career after suffering a rather horrible crash. His first choice is to go through the same fate as his late mentor Doc and give up his career to the next rookie in line (Jackson Storm). For a second choice, new Rust-eze owner Sterling wants Lightning to retire with dignity and promote himself as a brand. By the climax, Lightning discovers the answer to beating Storm and lets his former trainer Cruz Ramirez race in his place under his number. She wins, and due to both sharing the number, they share the victory and Lightning gets to keep his job, and takes Cruz in as his pupil.
• Megara from Hercules takes one of these via using a Loophole Abuse. One option is to do nothing and let Hercules be defeated since he's been Brought Down to Normal through a deal with Hades that she was involved into, in exchange for her physical safety. The second is to have Hercules break the pact, which would get her hurt. The one she takes is to break the pact herself via pulling a Diving Save to keep Hercules from being crushed by a falling column; as soon as she's injured, Hercules recovers his powers and is able to fight back. (Too bad Megara's injuries are fatal, however. But Hercules himself finds a way to get around that, too).
• After the climax of The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea as a reward for stopping Morgana, King Triton gives Melody the choice to live in Atlantica with him as a mermaid or return to her home on land. Her decision is "I have a better idea..." and instead uses the trident to dissolve the wall separating the castle from the ocean, and presumably spends her teenage years switching back and forth from human to mermaid.
• James P. "Sulley" Sullivan is left in charge of Monsters, Inc. with a dilemma: continue to operate the company harvesting the screams of small children, after seeing how terrified it makes them, or let the company collapse, leaving him in poverty and shame and Monstropolis in an eternal electrical blackout? Sulley goes public with the discovery of laughter, a power source ten times more potent than screams, compatible with existing Monsters, Inc. technology, and entirely kid-friendly.
• The Princess and the Frog has a meta example: Tiana is the first African-American Disney princess, so how do they go about portraying the prince? They couldn't make him white, since that would be telling African-American boys that they will never be good enough to be princes. They couldn't make him African-American either, since that would reinforce the stereotype that only African-Americans can fall in love with and marry other African-Americans.^note There were some people who were behind this idea, pointing to the first African-American couple in the White House. Disney's solution: make him Middle Eastern, leading to the creation of Prince Naveen of Maldonia.
• In Tangled, Mother Gothel is about to forcefully take Rapunzel away, but Rapunzel promises she'll go with Mother Gothel willingly if she can use her hair to heal a fatally injured Flynn first. Flynn quickly takes a third option by cutting Rapunzel's hair before she can heal him, allowing Rapunzel her freedom while denying Mother Gothel from her source of eternal youth (thereby ending her life) once and for all and denying himself a chance to be healed from his mortal injury. He dies, but then Rapunzel's Swiss-Army Tears (which retain the last bits of her hair's healing powers) kick in and he's revived.
• While Andy is playing in Toy Story 2, with Hamm making Woody choose Bo Peep's fate.
  "I choose Buzz Lightyear!"
  "What? That's not a choice!"
  • Foreshadows how Woody himself solves the film's main plot, where he must either abandon the other Woody's Roundup toys to go back to Andy, or abandon Andy to join their exhibit at the museum so they won't be put into storage. He just brings them to Andy so they can be loved as a toy. It works for Jessie and Bullseye, but not Stinky Pete.
• In Toy Story 3 when Andy is going off to college, Woody considers going with him while the other toys are put to storage in the attic, but later on the other toys consider staying at Sunnyside Daycare after accidentally being donated. After all is settled and they return home, Woody sees Andy's mom start to cry over his departure and he tells her she'll always be with him; this prompts Woody to change his mind and takes an unexpected third choice, by having Andy donate all the toys — including himself — to a little girl named Bonnie.
• In Turning Red, Meilin Lee is told by her family that as a female descendant of Sun Yee, she has two choices regarding her red panda spirit: perform a magic ritual under a red moon to seal it away and return to being her old self, or else be burdened with the strain of repressing it for the rest of her life. Her friends wonder if there's a third option: banish the panda, but keep the personality changes that came with it. In the end, Mei finds a fourth option: she embraces the red panda spirit and thereby gains full control over it, as Sun Yee did. As the red moon ends, Mei decides to take this option permanently as a way to live her own life and avoid the Generational Trauma that passed from her mother down to her.
• Wreck-It Ralph: When faced with the Sadistic Choice of either letting Vanellope race and possibly have Sugar Rush shut down OR save her life by destroying her kart, he initially goes for the second option until he comes to realize there there may be a third option: trying to fix her glitching. This plan is successful.

---